


Service Dogs for Superheroes (SDfSH): Natasha and Lapushka

by literally_no_idea



Series: Service Dogs for Superheroes (SDfSH) Main Series [31]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Gen, Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark Friendship, Natasha Romanov Feels, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, SDfSH 'verse, Service Animals, Service Dogs, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 10:23:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18364118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literally_no_idea/pseuds/literally_no_idea
Summary: Ever since Natasha got Diva for Tony, Tony’s been thinking about how to repay Natasha for it. And as she trains more and more dogs for all of the other heroes, he wonders if she’s ever thought of getting a dog for herself, and then he knows exactly how he’s going to return the favor.





	Service Dogs for Superheroes (SDfSH): Natasha and Lapushka

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back to the series, or if you're new here, welcome! This part is about Natasha and Lapushka. Enjoy!

Ever since Natasha got Diva for Tony, Tony’s been thinking about how to repay Natasha for it. And as she trains more and more dogs for all of the other heroes, he wonders if she’s ever thought of getting a dog for herself, and then he knows exactly how he’s going to return the favor.

 

He makes an active effort to help choose and train Rhodey’s dog, partially because he just loves Rhodey but also because he wants to see how exactly Natasha trains the dogs. He helps make the gear for all of the dogs, helps Natasha with Ava’s training, and then he gets to pick Thor’s dog, and when Natasha confirms that he made a good decision with Sparkles, he finally feels confident enough to try and get a dog for Natasha.

 

He spends days searching through dog breeds and mixed breeds, trying to find the perfect dog for her, and he eventually settles on the Black Russian Terrier. There’s plenty of breeders in the US, but Tony decides to go straight to the source to get the dog, so he finds a breeder and flies out to Moscow, Russia, meeting with the breeder and picking the puppy he wants.

 

He knows for sure that he wants a female puppy, he thinks that fits Natasha somehow, and he ends up bringing a small, 2 month old puppy home with him, and he names her Lapushka, because he’s heard Natasha use that as a form of endearment before and, after checking the translation, he had thought that “little paw” was also an adorable name.

 

* * *

 

Tony trains Lapushka in basic obedience, using Diva to help show Lapushka the responses he’s looking for, and she learns quickly, watching Diva and mimicking his behavior. Tony takes Lapushka to her vaccination appointments, introduces her to the other dogs in the tower as secretly as possible, and crate trains her for when he’s in the workshop, just because he doesn't want her to get hurt while he’s working.

 

By the time Lapushka’s eight months old, she already has basic and advanced obedience down while in the tower, so Tony makes her a small vest with “in training” patches and takes her to pet stores, doing more training with her there. He uses a clicker to train her, and he constantly has other customers coming over and asking him how they can train their dogs too. He shows them, asking that they kindly not mention anything about it online because it’s a surprise for Natasha.

 

When he’s sure that Lapushka has all of her obedience commands down, Tony starts teaching her all of her different tasks. He teaches her to clear rooms, summon help, block and cover, alert and respond to anxiety, flashbacks, and nightmares, do deep pressure therapy and grounding, and to distinguish between hallucinations and reality, tasks that many of the other dogs know as well.

 

He also teaches her a task that he’s pretty sure none of the other dogs have been taught, teaching her how to perform interventions if Natasha tries to self harm. Tony’s seen Natasha self harming on a few different occasions, and it’s always subtle; scratching at her hands, a too-precise-to-be-accidental cut on her arm, bruised and bloody knuckles from where she’s been working on a punching bag without wrapping her hands properly. They’re all actions that could easily be mistaken as carelessness, but Tony knows better; he’s seen those same behaviors or similar ones in himself before.

 

So he trains Lapushka to interrupt when he starts to fake those behaviors, either nudging or pawing at his hands or legs to get his attention and stop him from hurting himself. When he’s finally confident in Lapushka’s training, he puts her in a heart shaped, pink velcro vest with pink trim and takes her down to meet Natasha on the communal floor.

 

Most of the team is gathered on the communal floor, taking turns racing each other in Mario Kart, but when Tony walks in with Lapushka, they all stop, and Rhodey pauses the game, smiling. “You can’t just pause because I was winning,” Natasha complains, but whatever she was going to say next is cut short when she spots Tony and the dog. “Oh my god,” she says softly, and then she’s off the couch and crouched down beside Lapushka, running a hand through her fur.

 

“Tony, you didn’t,” she says, and the whole room is silent as she stands up to meet Tony’s eyes.

 

“I did. Surprise?” he says, fidgeting nervously until Diva puts his head under Tony’s hand, and Natasha swallows, eyes welling up with tears.

 

“What’s her name?”

 

“Lapushka.”

 

Natasha lets out a choked up laugh, blinking as the tears start rolling down her cheeks. “‘Little paw,’ of course. You paid attention to that.” She takes the leash that Tony hands her, and then she’s wrapping her arms around Tony, pulling him into a tight hug. “Thank you, Tony.”

 

“Of course, Nat. You’ve done a lot for us. For me. You’ve earned this. You deserve this.”

 

There’s a few moments of silence. “What all does she know?”

 

“Most of the PTSD tasks you’ve taught the other dogs. And self harm intervention.”

 

Natasha laughs, wiping the tears off of her face. “Yeah, you noticed that too, huh. I. Thank you.”

 

“You’re welcome.”

 

“This is sweet, but I was about to beat you at Mario Kart,” Bucky says from the couch, and Natasha turns, smiling.

 

“Oh, you’re on, Barnes. Come on, Lapushka, we’ve got a game to win. And get over here, Tony, I’m going to beat you at Rainbow Road as soon as I kick both Rhodey’s and Bucky’s asses.”

 

Tony grins. “Let’s go then, Romanoff, I’m not scared of you.”

 

* * *

 

The first time Natasha goes out with Lapushka, they go to a little diner Natasha loves, and some overconfident asshole decides to take that as his cue to try and harass them, and Natasha’s honestly just bored of this shit. Seriously, don’t these guys realize who they’re dealing with by now?

 

The guy approaches her with a whistle and a “Hey baby, why don’t you let me serve you better than your dog could ever do?”

 

Natasha barely manages not to roll her eyes. “No thanks, I’m just here for a cup of coffee and an omelet, I’m not in the mood.”

 

“Aww, come on, honey,” the guy croons, leaning forward into Natasha’s personal space, and she turns to give him a cold look.

 

“You don’t want to do that,” she warns, and the guy frowns.

 

“Don’t be a bitch, I could give you a really good time,” he says, reaching for her arm, and Natasha’s standing, shoving the guy’s face down onto the table and pinning his arm behind his back before he can even touch her.

 

“Sir, I politely told you not to touch me. My service dog doesn’t change the fact that I’m a current Avenger and former international spy. Walk. Away. Now.”

 

She lets go, and the guy stumbles back to his feet, backing away. “Fine, yeah, whatever.” He leaves, and Natasha settles back down in the booth, using some napkins to dry up where the guy hitting the table had caused some of her coffee to spill over onto the table. She enjoys the rest of her meal, and if the rest of the customers look anywhere from slightly to very frightened of her, well, that’s not her problem. She tips the waiter well in apology for causing a scene, and then heads home.

 

* * *

 

On another occasion, she’s in a store in the mall picking out some new jackets when a man starts making kissy noises at Lapushka, and this time she does roll her eyes, turning to face the man. “Please don’t distract her, she’s working.” She goes back to looking through the racks of clothes, and as she’s standing there Lapushka steps behind her, blocking, so she turns to find the man petting Lapushka, cooing at her even as the dog ignores him.

 

“Sir, I already told you, please don’t bother her, she’s working,” Natasha repeats, and the man scoffs.

 

“So? She’s a dog, what do you expect? People are going to pet her, get over it.”

 

Natasha’s seriously getting tired of this shit. She calls Lapushka back into a heel as she faces the guy. “She’s a service dog. She’s not meant for you to pet. She’s meant to be working. And she’s not your dog, either.”

 

The guy reaches for Lapushka again, and Natasha grabs his outstretched arm, twisting and flipping the man down onto his back on the floor in one swift move. “As I already said, don’t touch her. Service dogs are permitted in public space because they’re considered medical equipment. They’re part of their handlers, so when you assault my service dog, you’re assaulting me. Do you really want to be the person that assaults public figures? Or the person that assaults disabled people? Because that sounds pretty shitty to me. Find a new hobby, asshole.”

 

Natasha goes back to the jackets she was looking at, grabbing the three she likes, and when she turns back around, the guy is gone. Good. She really didn’t feel like washing blood out of her clothes today.

**Author's Note:**

> Service dog facts of the day:
> 
> -In this story, we see Natasha out shopping and Lapushka moving into a block behind her without being told to do so. This is actually pretty common for dogs that have been taught "block" as a command. It's referred to as "independent blocking," and basically just means that the dog will choose to block on their own because they recognize a need to do so. Again, this isn't a "protective" or "aggressive" command; it's simply the dog learning to stand between the handler and others. As far as the dog knows, they're just supposed to stand there; they're not being taught to be protective.
> 
> -Not necessarily related to this story in particular, but some service dogs are trained in foreign languages! There are different reasons why this might be the case; the dog might have been trained in a different country and so they learned their commands in that country's language, the handler might prefer to use one language or another, or sometimes this is done so that there's less of a chance of the dog being distracted by someone besides their handler giving them a command
> 
> -That last reason, however, is one that I personally am not huge on; I fully believe that the dog should be focused on their handler and only their handler's commands no matter what language is used, but I also can understand that using a different language can be helpful.
> 
> With that said, if you'd like to see drabbles and notes related to this series or would like to talk to me about this series or anything else, you can find me on tumblr [ here ](https://servicedogsforsuperheroes.tumblr.com)
> 
> In three days, I'll be posting Wade's story. I'd like to also take a moment to apologize for his and his service dog's inclusion in the disability advocacy story without having already posted his story. Yes, I am, in fact, a mess on occasion. I forgot that the stories I already have written and the stories I have posted are two different things.
> 
> Anyway, as always, thank you so much for reading!


End file.
